African-Americans' anger not over just one incident

It is faulty thinking to think that blacks, whites and a few others are marching just because of one incident, Trayvon Martin's murder. They are marching because of the historical devaluation of black people by America. This is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

For nearly 400 years, America physically enslaved, psychologically abused, academically impaired and economically impoverished blacks. The abolition of slavery merely liberated individual slaves from individual masters. It did not topple the culture of slavery.

An example of the persistence of race includes the jury composition in the recent George Zimmerman trial: five white women and one woman whose race is unknown. CNN commentator Mark Geragos got it right when he spoke of the prism through which the jurors have observed their world over the past 40 or 50 years. That prism to which Geragos refers is the lens of "nonpracticing racists." They currently reap the benefits of racism. Their perception and opinion of blacks influenced their "honorable" intention. Therefore, it was impossible for them to find Zimmerman guilty.

Another example of the persistence of race is the judge's order that counsel make no mention of "racial" with regard to profiling. This mere act of not mentioning race is buried deeply in the American psyche. That if we don't say race or acknowledge race, it is not racism.

Naturally, the not guilty verdict wounds blacks - again. This state of consciousness for America has gone on much too long and has injured too many blacks to be allowed to continue. Hopefully, this unjust tragedy might spark a conversation about the pathologies of racism, self-hatred and the disenfranchisement of blacks.

Thelma Sims Dukes, former Jacksonian

Atlanta

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African-Americans' anger not over just one incident

It is faulty thinking to think that blacks, whites and a few others are marching just because of one incident, Trayvon Martin's murder. They are marching because of the historical devaluation of